Ambition
by Magic Rose
Summary: King Cold sorts out the resulting fight between his sons after Kale's transfer, and begins to note the unsaiyanlike behavior in Kale himself.
1. The First Death

I suppose you could say that it began when my father killed my twin brother.

His name was Charmont. He was arrogant, scrappy-everything that a saiyan was supposed to be. There was only one thing he lacked: strength. He was simply weak, and there was no getting away with that. This was never much of an issue as we grew up, because it was assumed that his strength would improve.

It didn't.

Despite the shame that it brought to the family (we were a third-class family, hardly worth notice anyway), that too could have been overlooked. It was done all the time, because of the commonly held belief that saiyans could always get stronger. We who were dubbed "third class" often escaped notice for things that the first rank saiyans would be called on the carpet and blasted for.

My father went on like this. He trained the both of us, until one day shortly after our seventeenth birthday, a messenger turned up at our door. He had orders in hand commanding Charmont to report for duty. He was to work for Frieza.

Everyone grumbled about this, true, but the fact was-it was better than what we had to put up with if we were strictly planet-bound. There was more camaraderie, more brotherhood, if you were on some sort of a team. You had more friends, you had more trips to bars, you just had _more_.

Naturally, I was jealous. So he, the weakling, would get to go on to bigger and better things while I remained behind. The weakling would get the reward and the spoil of a life spent doing what every saiyan hungered for. And he would _ruin_ it. This weakling who could not even beat his own sister, _ever_, would utterly destroy himself at some point. I spent a night of ill rest fuming about that fact, and even when I did get to sleep my dreams tailored to it. I never expected what I saw when I woke up.

My father was standing over my brother's bloody corpse.

Before I could even ask what was going on he told me to shut up. He started talking almost too fast for me to understand, explaining that he had done this for my good. I was the superior warrior, I was the one he had spent more time on, I was the treasured one. A lot of different words meaning all the same thing. I finally ventured to ask what my brother's death would do to give me his assigned job.

My father handed me a strange bodysuit and some bandages.

"Put those on. I know you know how to do it," he said, "Get them on and keep them on and no one will ever know that you aren't your brother."

I pondered that only for a moment. Despite my being a girl and my brother being...well, a boy, we'd often been mistaken for one another when we were younger. As I grew older, and as a result, curvier, it stopped happening. My body changed but my face remained the same.

He left the room, I put on the suit (I later learned, a compression sort of getup), banded myself, and there I was. It was that easy to become a man.

My father nodded in approval when I left my room and sent me on.

How could I have known where this would lead? How could I know that this first deception that pleased my father would turn his delight into disgust in just seven short years?

Looking back, I don't think I would have done a thing differently. Ambition got me where I am today, and I could not be more content with my situation in life.


	2. Good Doctors

I saw Frieza only once the first year, and that was the easiest part of the whole year. Some of the other saiyans who'd been working for him for a while told me that he rarely if ever deigned to speak to the "underlings" and that if I kept my head down there'd be nothing to worry about.

The rest was difficult. Sharing bunks, answering to my brother's name, and continuing to wear those damned things that kept my form manly. How I hated them. How I hated having to pretend to be such a weakling!

I began to see why he had been chosen for the job when I received my first mission. I was to go with some other saiyans and scout a particular planet. Rumors had proceeded from it, telling of fearsome warriors that lived there, who could almost combat the saiyans. Who were almost as strong as them. Our group took that seriously, as anyone would, and came in determined to do some damage.

It turned out that the rumors were true. These beings were more than strong enough to defeat us, and I strongly suspect that that was why we were sent. However, while six of my seven comrades fell to their opponents, I managed (tasting blood and having trouble seeing due to a blow on the side of my head) to kill all three of them.

Only one of my group survived, and he passed completely out. I managed to drag us back to my space pod, and set the course back for Frieza's ship.

That nameless saiyan, I later learned, died in my arms on the way back.

* * *

"Wake up!"

There was a voice from outside the healing tank, and Kale's focus went from groggy to sharp in a half-second. Healing tank! She was back on Frieza's ship! But then, that meant...

Ah, yes. As was the custom, one had to be naked to be in the tanks. Her disguise had not even lasted two years. How _ridiculously unfair_. As she found herself released from the tank, she stepped out, took the towel offered by the doctor, and dried off. "If you tell anyone..." she started to growl the words but the doctor raised a hand and quickly cut her off._  
_

"I understand." He wasn't complaining, of course. The view while she was in the tank easily convinced him that secrecy was a cheap price to pay.

The doctors Frieza employed tended to be the only trustworthy people on board the ship. They could be counted on to do any number of little things for the saiyans - or anyone who used their services - and then they could be trusted not to talk about it.

To say that Kale wasn't shocked would be untrue. She was startled, stunned, to think that anyone would let that tidbit of information pass. So, wanting to satisfy her curiosity, she asked, "You're not going to tell anyone? That's it?"

"No, of course not," the doctor replied, "What do I care if you're not really a man? How does it affect my job in that I have to treat you? Aside from a few minor things I won't mention, none of your feminine qualities do anything to at all impact my job." He would not dare tell her the other part of his reason. He'd learned from another doctor that to openly acknowledge why he was perfectly fine with having female saiyans around could be hazardous to his health.

After Kale dressed in her bindings and armor, there was a bit of shouting near the door, so she made a quick escape through it and brushed past Frieza.

And in her next step, stopped cold. What was he doing there? She started to move in hopes of avoiding him, but sadly, it was not to be.

"Saiyan!"

She turned around, bowing immediately before answering, "Yes, Lord Frieza?"

"Are you the one who survived scouting planet Laius?"

"Yes, Lord Frieza. To my knowledge there was one other."

"He has died. And there is only you left alive."

"Yes, Lord Frieza."

He took a step closer, and seemed to be staring her down, as if trying to draw something from her that he did not already know. As with the doctor, she began to panic that he knew or suspected, but she soon shoved those thoughts aside when he spoke again.

"It seems that you are stronger than I was told you are. I will be reading the report you make." After a moment's pause he glared. "I'm done with you."

Again, Kale bowed; then she left, breathing a sigh of relief when she got to the end of the corridor without being blasted. While a little nerve-wracking, it was not quite so bad as she had imagined it to be. He had even seemed pleased at her constant use of his title. Perhaps it was behavior like this, rather than her outright ability, that would save her skin.

She had always been said to have a silver tongue. This would be the time to use it.

* * *

How strange to think that my words would have such an effect on others. It was so different from Planet Vegeta, it truly was, and I began to look forward to advancing and gaining rank. I would show them that a saiyan was not just a brutish fighter, that a saiyan could be just as much a sycophant as any of them.

A bad trait, many would say. But I was tired of having little and being called a monkey. If I was going to bear it I could at least have a few trappings to enjoy. I would not let it pass, but I would not be stupid enough to grow angry and attack anyone verbally, as others had. That was not the way to deal with things here, that much was obvious.

I would get what I wanted. But that would come later.


	3. The Joke

By the third year I had earned a promotion, with no small thanks going to my idiotic immediate superior, who had made the rather fatal mistake of telling Frieza that something was impossible.

The other saiyans could never make up their minds about me. Charmont - that is, my brother, not me - had been weak, yet had improved. They could deal well enough with that, but my kissing up lead me to make more than a few enemies among them. The others simply didn't care one way or the other, and it was the latter group which formed my circle of friends. If nothing else, they often said, they could get through me advance notice of one thing or another.

Something else happened in the third year, though.

I met Lord Cooler, and my life began to change drastically.

* * *

Kale groaned as she stepped out of the healing tank and began to towel off. That had been even more ridiculous a mission than the time that saiyan had died in her ship while she'd been holding him. Repeatedly, she had been sent on missions that she was becoming increasingly suspicious were designed to kill her. Each one seemed to see her sent with fewer and fewer companions, and that last one she had completed with - as she had her first - her barely keeping her skin.

"The higher ups don't seem to like you," the doctor said humorously, handing her her bands and armor, "But you seem to keep surprising them."

"Of course," Kale said, nodding, "I'll be damned if I let them get the best of me..."

After dressing she headed out of the room and down to the _one _bar to be found on the ship. Noting her usual circle of friends in the corner, she headed on over.

"So, you're alive then, huh?" one of the bulkier ones asked.

"Auber, don't make that joke again, it's _old_," another said, "He really needs a drink after that one, I think."

"Boy, do I, Yuc...when you're right, you're right," Kale said, grabbing a beer and sitting down. "Right now all I want to do is get good and drunk, and maybe get into a fist-fight with one of you."

"A fist-fight? You?" Auber asked.

"And what's so shocking about that, huh? I spar with you like any normal saiyan..."

"But the difference is, you don't do ... hmm, the right word ... base things like that. You're all hoity-toity, and special, and reserve your temper...you're too busy kissing ass to have _any _fun fighting..."

"I do _not _do that," Kale snapped, downing the rest of her beer and lying through her teeth, "Just because I cooperate, doesn't mean I don't dislike him like the rest of you."

"Well, you do have a good impression of Frieza..." Yuc said, laughing and gesturing to Auber, "You've never seen him do his impression of Frieza. It's absolute gold, I tell you, it's hilarious. Go on, Charmont, go on, do it."

Kale wasn't entirely sure about it, but noticed that no one was even paying attention to their table. The others may not have even heard Yuc, so she shut her eyes for a moment, and tried to summon the mindset of a spoiled brat. "You," she said, in her best upset child voice, "You're _ridiculous_. I don't like looking at you. You failed. I'm going to blast you. And the panel, I'm going to blast _it_, too, and the idiot using it, because I'm in charge and you told me I couldn't accomplish this. You're all _so stupid _and you're not going to sleep until I get what I want!"

As she had gone on like this, she had spoken with her eyes half-closed, and it was because of this that she failed to notice the shocked looks on their faces as the doors opened, letting in an unexpected visitor.

When she had finished, she looked over them. "What, am I that good at it? Nothing to say?"

Auber quickly nodded towards the door, and she turned to look, seeing...

Lord Cooler.

Oh, _hell_, she thought, Oh, I am in serious trouble now.

She started to apologize, but he only raised a hand and replied, "Please, continue. You were doing such a good job at it."

There was silence then as he passed the table in his hover-chair, and Kale let out the breath that she didn't realize she'd been holding. Had she really gotten out of that situation so easily? She looked back to Yuc and Auber, who were looking similarly stunned.

"You're a lucky son of a bitch, you know that, right?" Yuc asked, looking a bit impressed. "I thought he was going to blast you, the way he was staring at you while you were talking..."

Kale, however, was in no mood to talk about the situation, and went back to drinking, downing a second and then a third beer in quick succession, and diving into earnest discussion with another table about the possible reason for Cooler's being there.

The brothers did not get along - everyone on the ship knew it. Frieza and Cooler were rivals, and as such were rarely if ever seen together. So for Cooler to be seen on his brother's ship had to be the herald for some sort of horrible fight or meeting with their father. The latter did not happen often, but the thought of a fight occurring was not something looked forward to, ever. Such fights had happened only once or twice before but had resulted in the deaths of several of Frieza's lackey's, including one saiyan.

* * *

The next morning, Kale checked in with the on-board computer to see if there were any notes left for her or to see if she had to see her (new) immediate superior about a new mission, and to her surprise she saw a note that said that she should come speak to him.

A new mission? No, there would have been some notes about that, if that were the case.

No matter. She went straight to him, and before she could say a word, he said, "Just what did you do?"

"Excuse me?"

"What did you do to get Lord Cooler's attention? I've just received transfer orders with _your _name on them. You do realize that this is going to have serious consequences, don't you?"

"I don't know what I did, alright?!"

Kale threw her hands in the air briefly, exasperated with her superior and not about to butter him up because of something she couldn't help. How was it her fault if her work had gotten someone's attention?

"All I can tell you is that this is being put through under Frieza's nose, and he's _not _going to be happy. There was talk that he would quit sending you to die due to your impressive record, but this is going to cause a hell of a mess."

"Why would Cooler even care about one of Frieza's workers, anyway? I don't understand it, doesn't he hate saiyans?"_  
_

"He's a bit less discriminating than his brother," the supervisor said, latching on to the new topic of conversation, and hoping to ease his temper, "He does still regard you as a lowly saiyan, but he doesn't mention it as much as Frieza. Now back to the matter at hand - you are going to have to go, and quickly, before Frieza finds out about this."

"Now? Without any warning _at all_?"

"Yes. Now. Get your things together and report to Pod Bay 7 in half an hour."

Kale nodded, and headed back to her small room to pack up the few possessions she had, still puzzled at the sudden transfer. Her joke could certainly not have been what prompted the transfer. It had to be the improvement that she had supposedly made, the sudden rise in the number of her victories as opposed to her brother's record of weaknesses and failures before.

So the lie became more convenient, and she was thankful to step out of the pod and onto Cooler's ship a day later.

* * *

Going from Frieza's ship to Cooler's was certainly a change for me. Among other things, they weren't walking on eggshells all the time. True, they knew that mistakes would have consequences, but they didn't act entirely out of fear. They were loyal of their own accord because he was a good and effective leader. He praised very little, but gave nods of acknowledgment that were sufficient enough in that regard.

Reporting planned assassinations were met with praise by others, and not derision, as I did within a few weeks of being transferred. It was night and day, and despite the lack of contact with my father, and the isolation from my previous set of friends, I was already happily settling in to my new life.

Until he found out.


	4. Never Lie Again

The fourth year was the easiest yet, as far as making friends and promotions went. Though I had been busted down a rank, I got it back within four months. I was still sent on dangerous missions, but always with a sensible amount of saiyans, or whatever races happened to be assigned to my team. Life was actually good - one did not have to worry about being blasted unless one did something horribly stupid.

Unless one could keep it a secret, of course.

* * *

The only problem Kale had on the ship was dealing with the Armored Squadron. They were, as she expected, quite willing to lord their authority around and as long as they did not carry it too far, Cooler wasn't going to interfere. They made life difficult for everyone but their missions were always successful, so they were tolerated well enough by everyone despite their attitudes.

Kale, however, was constantly at odds with them.

Whenever she was just getting into a good sparring match in one of the training rooms, who should happen along but one of the Armored Squadron? Doore, Neiz, Salza - it didn't matter which one, it was always _her _sessions they were interrupted. Perhaps, she thought to herself, they saw her as a threat, and wanted to see her stay as weak as she had once been rumored to be.

And then one day she got an idea.

It was on that day that Salza happened to walk in when she had just finished beating the absolute tar out of her opponent, who limped out of the room without a word.

"Come back if you want another beating sometime," she said, her back turned to the door as she brushed herself off. "Honestly, he couldn't handle me..."

"Smug little bastard, aren't you?"

Kale heard the voice and turned to see Salza standing there, arms crossed, eyes narrowed and gaze focused coldly on her.

"I probably broke a few bones on that guy, of course I'm smug."

"I could easily do the same to you, you know. Out of the room or I will show you what it's like to go to the doctor in _pieces._"

For a moment, Kale considered it. His fighting skills far outclassed hers, and while she was never one to back down from a fight, she would leave. Not through cowardice but simply because she knew she could not beat him. And then the saiyan side of her pressed into the logical side, and through that a thought occurred to her.

Saiyans always got stronger. Being beaten to within an inch of her life had seen her power increase greatly. Perhaps if she did fight him...

"You're quite welcome to try," she said, turning to Salza with a smirk on her face. "I welcome a challenge."

He launched at her, and she barely had time to sidestep before he had turned and kicked her in the face. That sent her tumbling through the air but she hit the opposite wall with both feet and bounced back to strike him in the shoulder.

He staggered back and she landed, turned quickly, and kicked him in the back. That was when he turned, eyes blazing, and started his own assault.

Their fight from then on was a sea of flying fists and kicking legs. A fist in the chest, a kick in the ribs? It was too blurred a fight to tell. All that was obvious was that Kale was losing. She began to feel it halfway through the fight, but persevered, determined to at least get in one good blow if she couldn't beat him. He could win, but she was NOT about to let him win so easily.

It took her another few minutes of this furious battle to think, and she finally turned, hurling a blast of energy at him. While she had been intending to burn his face, he ducked, and in the process lost a bit of hair.

She laughed briefly, and that was when he noticed what was missing - then his anger dramatically swelled and he rushed towards her, hitting her with a slew of blows to the face. If his fighting before was furious, this was absolutely savage.

Kale fell after a minute or so of this beatdown. For burning some of his hair off, Salza gave her a good swift kick in the ribs. Then he turned to leave.

"Come back if you want another sometime," he said, smirking at her as he went out the door.

Kale, spitting up blood as she got up and headed for the doctor, could do nothing but laugh. Oh, what a fight that was, what an opponent Salza had been! She would _definitely _come back again.

And once she was patched up, she did. Time and time again, Salza would beat her down until she was tasting blood - and she would keep coming back for more. Her strength swelled, and the time it took for her to get to that bloody point increased.

The seventh fight was a bit different, however. Sometime early that day she had the distinct feeling that she shouldn't fight today - but it was quickly squashed and she headed on into the room anyway.

This time it took nearly two hours before she was left, as before, in a bloody heap on the ground. As before, she dragged herself to the doctor. And as before, she went straight into the healing tube.

It had been a particularly rough time, and so she (barely conscious) heard only vague snatches of a conversation the doctor seemed to be having.

"...of course not...would not deny you...an emergency..."

When she woke up hours later, the doctor was quieter than usual, and handed her her bands and undergarments in a stone-cold silence. He didn't seem to want to look directly at her either - perhaps her wounds had been just that bad? No, he had seen worse, she was sure!

On went the briefs first, and then she started banding herself. She was fully covered and preparing to band her hips when she heard a throat being cleared behind her.

She turned her head and felt as if her blood were running cold.

Behind her, sitting in his hover-chair, was Lord Cooler.

She felt no embarrassment as the average person would have - and besides, she was covered. But though she had hidden her chest well enough, there was an unmistakable feminine quality in the curve of her hips that no man with blood in his veins needed help identifying.

And then he left.

Kale hurriedly finished dressing and went straight back to her room, utterly and completely panicked. Not even the prospect of death had scared her this much. Her career could be over here. She would undoubtedly lose everything...

And then the computer in her room made its customary loud beep as it did whenever a message was received from the higher ups. Nervously, she checked the message, which read as follows:

LORD COOLER WISHES TO SEE YOU AT YOUR EARLIEST CONVENIENCE IN CONFERENCE ROOM SEVEN. THAT IS TO SAY, NOW.

Taking a deep breath, she resolved to say nothing unless asked, and to do what she could to prevent further damage. As she walked down the hall and into the room, she noticed him standing at the end, looking out a window into the vastness of space.

They were alone.

Once she'd shut the door, he turned towards her and asked, "Why did you lie?"

There was neither anger in his voice nor the intent to blast her in his body language. He seemed perfectly calm.

"I will have the whole story, one way or another. I would prefer you give it to me directly."

And so she told him the whole messy story - how it started when she was sparring with her brother down on the planet, and how her father had killed him when he received a summons to work for Frieza. Then she spoke briefly of the bands and such that she used to maintain a manly form.

"Interesting," he said, still using a calm monotone. He went silent for a few moments, and then said, "Do not lie to me again, Charmont. Or is that your brother's name? What is your real name?"

"Kale, Lord Cooler."

"Then, Kale, do not lie to me again. You may go."

She left, and Cooler still sat there, musing on her lie. She had gone to such trouble not to protect herself as a woman, but to get ahead in life - to strive for more. It was rare to see such ambition in a saiyan...

But he had other things to think about.

* * *

I gained an entirely new respect for Lord Cooler that day. Whatever his reasons, he had decided to do as the doctor had, and keep my secret.

His orders to go on specifically tough missions increased, and within another five months I had gained yet another promotion. He began to speak (at first briefly) of future missions to me, a thing unheard of except for the Armored Squadron.

My confusion grew. What had caused this? I had not done much (as my new...friends...called it) ass-kissing, so what had happened? Why was Cooler behaving this way?

I would never have suspected the truth.


	5. The Nursery Fight

King Cold never bothered much in the affairs of his sons, nor did they often ask for his input.

It surprised him, of course, that as his sons grew, little changed between them. He had known, of course, that rivalry would crop up. He had seen it among his own father and his uncle, and the two had remained mostly civil with spats cropping up occasionally where the two would come to serious blows.

Not so with Cooler and Frieza.

Cooler _tried _to leave his younger brother alone, as he had no desire to get into constant squabbles that would take him away from his work. But the younger brother made it a point to always, always challenge the authority of his brother, especially when it was inconvenient to do so. Even though he never won, even though he got nothing from the situation, he kept doing it, and never seemed to learn.

Tantrums. Blasting. Blood. It was all he seemed to see from his second son, and he was growing tired of it, though he had to admit that he did care for the petulant thing.

So it was that when Frieza came running to him about Cooler stealing one of his saiyans, that he responded (being in a somewhat humorous mood), "Oh, did Cooler steal your toys again?"

It only made Frieza more upset, as he predicted.

"Transferring one under my command to his does not fly well with me, father. Do not laugh, it is _not _funny."

Ah, that was it, then.

"I want the saiyan back, father!"

"And why has it taken you over a year to notice his departure? If he escapes your notice for that long, surely you can do without him."

"I had thought that he died on some mission or other, which I had expected."

"If you're going to kill your soldiers, son...why not do it yourself? You know how saiyans are."

"Yes, you _do know how they are_, don't you?"

Cooler's voice came from across the room and he walked up carefully, smirking. "Saiyans do not go down without a fight, and their potential is astounding. Despite your best attempts to kill him, he has survived. Did you really think I would let you do away with something so valuable?"

"You _stole him_," Frieza snarled, stomping his foot. "It doesn't _matter_ what I was going to do with him! He was _my soldier_!"

"Son," King Cold said, sighing and trying to put things as delicately as possible, "Perhaps things are better this way. After all, you didn't want him. Why not let him be handed off to someone who does?"

Oh, how he hated giving that talk. He had given it to his younger son many, many times when, as a child, Frieza had thrown away many toys and other things. And then he would get upset that his brother had taken them.

Frieza turned, storming out and snarling about the line Cooler had fed him. The potential power of saiyans WAS great...

Cooler laughed when Frieza had finally gone. "He still does not understand. I will not apologize for fixing something that he was determined to destroy."

"You are really willing to cause a fight with him over a saiyan? A mere monkey?" King Cold asked, "And just what has this creature done that has made you so willing to provoke your brother?"

"He is a formidable warrior - too good to be among the ranks of Frieza's army."

"Come now, there is something you're not telling me. What else could it be? You already have the Armored Squadron...what makes this saiyan so special?"

"He is loyal."

King Cold, momentarily forgetting to be regal, nearly choked on his wine. "A saiyan, loyal to you? You're sure he's not faking it?"

"I could not be more certain, father. He is not like other saiyans, who fight and fight and think nothing of their future. He is taking an active role in planning it."

"I would be wary of such a saiyan. Ambitious types like that can be very dangerous. More than one Cold family member has been murdered by a scheming soldier."

Cooler had thought of that, but wondered - briefly - what his father seemed to want to say. "And how would you recommend testing whether or not his loyalty is to me, and not to his advancement?"

"Make it so that he has only one choice, but make the choice attractive. Contrary to what your brother believes, well-treated soldiers are loyal ones. Sleep with one eye open, but do not let him see that it _is _open. Make it appear that you are not watching, and if he watches for you, then you will know. There is wisdom in being hated, yet ensuring that your underlings hate each other more."

"Any other pearls of wisdom?"

"No. Now go on, before your brother storms in demanding retribution." He nodded, thinking that he would call this saiyan in and try to figure out what the draw of him was.

* * *

Kale thought nothing of it when she noticed on her next mission that one of her companions was carrying a recording device. Perhaps, she reasoned to herself, it was because of the general importance of the mission. Their current target, the planet they were on, had a large store of an incredibly powerful natural resource that could be used for most of the fleet.

_They're probably spying on me to see if I inadvertently destroy something important, _she thought, and then went on about her business. She killed only the necessary people, though she enjoyed doing so, and when she could secure the surrender of the nobility by threatening something (usually their family or their king) she did so.

And elsewhere, King Cold watched the cold logic of the situation. This saiyan was quite different from the rest, yet still bloodthirsty. He was beginning to see why Cooler had taken him...

Perhaps, he thought to himself, this one deserved further notice. He continued to watch as this Charmont operated in a manner most different from other saiyans. This one was not as brutish. _Such a rarity, _he thought. But then it occurred to him that many people looked out simply for their own gain, and had overcome their base nature through the desire to move up in the world. He had seen the sycophants before, and been sickened by them, though he had enjoyed the attention. And that was what he was watching for._  
_

This saiyan would be worth no notice until he had proved himself better than those others.

* * *

Almost immediately after Kale healed up, Cooler walked into the room. It was almost like before, because she had already banded her chest and was starting on her hips.

"My father wishes to speak with you," he said as he watched her.

"Your father? Not that I object, but why does he want to meet a...as you would put it, a monkey?"

"Because," he said, "You are different. You are not like the normal saiyans, or the sycophants who flatter without end. You're...intelligently ambitious. You know your place, and seek to increase your standing, but you do not act without a thought to your current standing."

Another thought occurred to him, but that one he stifled. There was business to tend to.

Once she finished dressing, she turned to him, and after thinking a moment, asked, "Does he know?"

"No," Cooler replied, "Not yet. He will be made aware of it soon enough."

"Do you think that my gender would have any bearing on his opinion?"

"If anything it would make your nature make more sense to him."

"Why? Are your women generally more intelligent that way?"

"My father has come to think that women, while they can be mercenary, tend to go about it in a more intelligent way than a man would in gaining power. They are patient, for one. Now. You will be expected in Hangar 7 in an hour, and be sure that those bindings are tight."

* * *

He had evaded the question, and I did not press further on the issue. My meeting with his father was to take place the next day.

That meeting would be the turning point in my career. I can safely say that that meeting, there, was where all my real changes started, and my future began to look like it would be more than being just a monkey.


End file.
